Best Of Bond

Skyfall, Sam Mendes (2012)
When: November 2012
Where: Odeon Swiss Cottage (IMAX)

James Bond turned 50, he already has the fast cars, the trophy women and a rather well developed drinking habit so what now?  Skyfall answers a lot of those questions and sets up many more, it also continues the rich vein of form since Daniel Craig took on the role of 007.  There are a number of things that made Skyfall great to watch but my favourite was using the cinematic play of light and shadow to blend with the films narrative.  The Bond style is something we take for granted, the full size Ken Adam sets, the fight scenes, the use of the James Bond theme and the famous opening credits.  Mendes plays with it well, a polite British nod to the past, a modern British look to the future.

Rather than give this film any more free publicity I thought I'd talk about a couple of my favourite scenes in the film.  The first is the fight in the tower in China.  The scene is almost Batmanesque, however where as Batman has gadgets, a plan and an escape route costing millions, Bond rushes in using just the shadows and light to hide himself from the man he intends to interrogate and kill, this was classic Bond by nature but with a real cinematic touch, after all cinema is but light and shadow.

I also enjoyed the scene where Bond and Q (Ben Whishaw) fight to stop the Silva (Javier Bardem) from killing M (Judi Dench) and the MPs during the questioning.  The dead eyed, world weary, seen it all before rush hour crowd not bothered by a man jumping on to the back of a moving tube train.  The simple small room, confined shoot out with those questioning M and her methods shown up as cowards and the birth of the new M (Ralph Fiennes to follow.

Whilst I don't know if Skyfall is the best Bond ever made it is certainly the most cinematic and I really hope this continues going forward to keep the heart of my favourite film franchise alive and well.

Fondue!!!

St Moritz Style!
When: March 2013
Where: St Moritz


I don't think there's much in the world that makes me happier than fondue.  Melted cheese, crusty bread, potatoes and/or meat with the possibility of fruit and chocolate to follow.  Despite living in London for many years we had yet to go out anywhere for fondue.  I'm not sure why but perhaps it's due to a lack of choice, the nearest restaurant to us seems like somewhere to do traditional German drinking, dancing and merriment and for me all I want is the cheese, the rest I can more than do without.  Finally we found the St Moritz restaurant in the West End, from the website they look a little old fashioned, they even suggest booking via fax rather than e-mail, but then again when it comes to fondue maybe the old ways are the best.  As the weeks came and went, birthdays and occasions missed we kept calling for reservations with little joy, until finally one Sunday the table for five we'd been longing for was ours.

When the time finally came it was the perfect day, freezing temperatures, a biting cold wind and the promise of light snow in the air, the perfect day for fondue.  Spying the Swiss flag above the door I waited for my dining companions as we entered what looked like a small rickety old house filled with relics that looked like something out of Roger Moore in For You Eyes Only, cow bells, cheese and 80s winter sports photos, this was already looking like it would be well worth the wait.  Then the smell of melting cheese hits, perhaps this is what heaven (or possibly hell) smells like.  We were taken up the stairs to our table, had our coats taken and were offered menus.  Here the kitsch continued and not feeling too brave we decided to go for 2 different kinds of cheese fondue between us, the Fondue Neuchsteloise: Dip fresh crusty bread into bubbling Gruyere & Emmental cheese and the Fondue Moitie-Moitie: Melted Gruyere and Vacherin cheese from Switzerland served with new potatoes and bread washed down with a nice chilled bottle of house white.

 As we sipped away at the wine the theatre of the fondue experience began to build.  First setting the table, then bringing the burners, lighting the burners, bringing the bread and then...  two steaming hot saucepans of molten cheese pleasure and some potatoes!  I have only one rule for good fondue, eat until I'm about to be sick.  St Moritz did not disappoint and many a dip of bread and potato later I was feeling that every little bit less in heaven and another bite closer to hell.  With a small puddle of cheese left in the pan and my dining companions having long since given up it was time to throw in the pick and extinguish the flame.  Fondue had one won only a double espresso could save me.

We will almost certainly be going back to St Moritz again, the food was excellent, the service friendly and professional and there were a number of non-cheese items on the menu that looked rather good.  I also wanted to try some of the desserts which we were too full to manage.  In all a perfect nights dining, I can't wait to do it again!


St Moritz: 161 Wardour Street, London W1F 8WJ
Telephone: 0207 734 3324

The Curry House and James Bond

Tayyabs

When: 21st July 2012

Another Saturday, another trip to East London.  Today however, would be different as I was able to spend my time enjoying two of my favourite British exports, the curry house and James Bond!  For the second week in a row I wanted to dodge the chains and thought we'd try the institutional curry house Tayyabs.

A good old fashioned curry house experience is one of my favourite things.  It brings back memories from my childhood and the novelty of being given a small chocolate at the end of the meal which to me was the height of luxury fine dining.  It was also special being able to have a good meal out whilst being vegetarian.  Anyway, times change, tastes change but the curry house remains as good as ever.

Tayyabs is famous for its tandoori cuisine, which is one of my favourite cooking styles.  We meet our friend and make the short walk from Aldgate East to the restaurant which is hard to miss from the large neon signs out front.  We took the advice to book a table as apparently it can get very busy so we were a little surprised to find only 1-2 other tables in use when we arrived.  Within five minutes of being given our menus our side of the restaurant was full to bursting, it was a good job we booked after all!  We had a table near the kitchen where I could take a good look at the action.  Service was brisk and polite but nothing to get excited about.  We ordered some starters to share:  delicious giant cubes of Paneer Tikka and some Lamb Chops straight from the tandoor in a lovely acidic marinade.  We also had some very tasty Pakoras.  Our starters were accompanied by some Popadoms and chutneys.  There wasn't much wait for the food and we were off to a great start with that addictive acidic tang of the marinated meat, I was enjoying this meal.

Before we'd even finished our starters our mains came along filling up the table.  I had one of the specialty curries, Karahi Lamb Tikka Masala, my partner also had an identical looking, but totally different tasting lamb curry.  We shared a couple of amazing buttery Tandoori Naans and some Karahi Bhindi, which to my taste was the only imperfect item we'd ordered.  This was a really great meal let down only by the rushed and less than perfect service.  It seems they have only one pace of working irrespective of how busy the restaurant is.  I would come back here to eat again, though not without trying one of the other local grills in the area and as good as the food was I would not make a special journey to come here when I have the good old Star of Bombay just a short bus ride away!  Though they did present the bill with two Union Jack chocolates (for the three of us!) to complete that famous curry house experience.

Designing 007: 50 Years of Bond Style

Where: Barbican Centre, London

As much as I love a good curry, it's no match for anything to do with James Bond.  So after some gentle persuasion we attended this exhibition at the Barbican.  There were 14 separate areas of the exhibition, a perfectly themed entrance and the opportunity to have your photo taken with the classic Aston Martin from Goldfinger.  The exhibition was divided into the various themes that has made Bond iconic over the last 50 years and each was filled with film props including gadgets, guns and the various outfits worn by Bond, the villains and the many Bond girls from the 23 films.

The first room of the exhibition was themed around gold and included the original Ken Adam sketches for Fort Knox from Goldfinger, Oddjob's steel-brimmed hat as well as Scaramanga's golden gun.  So far so good as we squeezed into a small room documenting the colourful life of James Bond's creator, Ian Flemming.  Flemming is just as interesting if not more so than the character he created.  He was a key influence in the cinematic appearance of James Bond in terms of his dress and background.  Also a number of the characters that appear in the books/films were named after Flemming's friends.  The idea of James Bond came from Flemming's time in the military and has passion for travel writing and journalism.

The next section was one that I particularly enjoyed, M's Office.  This section contained a number of Bond artefacts including passports, ID cards, credit cards, dossiers as well as a bit about the characters of M and Moneypenny.  The level of detail in these props are one of the things I love about Bond films.  Despite all the fantastic and often ridiculous elements to these films there is always a strong authenticity to the props used.  Of course once you have been briefed it's time to pick up your supplies from the Quartermaster or Q Branch as we know it.  Here we are treated to a selection of briefcases, watches and other "ordinary" items that can be transformed into lethal weapons, listening devices and escape routes at the flick of a switch.  There was also an extended section on the boat used in the opening sequence of The Wold is Not Enough.

After this was another James Bond staple, the casino.  In this section there was a full scale mock-up of the table and gamblers from Casino Royale forming the centre piece of the room.  In addition there were numerous mock ups of the various casino outfits and clips projected of many of the famous Bond casino scenes.  There was also a dress from the forthcoming Skyfall which was exciting to see.  After the excitement of the casino there was a section on the various countries and exotic places that Bond has visited over the years and how the look of these places was created.  The main focus here was on India as seen in Octopussy and the fabulous space base from Moonraker.

There were two main sections left after this, the next being Villains.  This room was filled with the costumes and props of many of the Bond villains, such as Rosa Klebb's spiked shoe, Jaws' teeth, the "bomb surprise" and Boris from Goldeneye frozen solid with liquid nitrogen.  There was also a section on the Bond girls that help Bond out in the films including Solitaire with her card table and Jinx in her bikini.  Alas it was time to move downstairs in the Bond lifts to visit the final room, the Ice Palace which celebrated Bond and all things snowy from the famous ski stunts to the magnificent Ice Palace from The World is Not Enough.  There was also the famous cello (with skis attached!) that Bond and Kara use to escape in The Living Daylights.

If I had one complaint about this exhibition it would be the lack of any interactive display areas, it would have been amazing to have been able to go hands on with some of the Bond gear as well as take some photos of it, though from reading about the lack of available items it is perhaps understandable.  This exhibition is clearly a must for suckers like me who can't wait till Skyfall later this year!  After finishing up at the Ice Place it was time to go home and reflect on a wonderful day of famous British exports, the curry house and James Bond.

Tayyabs - 83-89 Fieldgate Street London E1 1JU
020 7247 6400

Designing 007:50 Years of Bond Style - Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS Until 5th September 2012

How Many More Mistakes?

Film: Quantum of Solace (Marc Forster, 2008)

Watched: October 31st 2008

Where: Gaumont Parnasse, Paris

The James Bond films have been changing of late and I don't mean in personnel from Brosnan to Craig. Failure, mistakes and mistrust are at their heart. Not in the Cold War sense, but amongst the so called allies. The villain vs Bond is not the centre stage, instead it is M's decision making. In The World is Not Enough (1999, Michael Apted), it is M that falls for Elektra King's (Sophie Marceau) plan and places herself, the mission and the world in jeopardy. In Die Another Day (2002, Lee Tamahori), it is her that hires Miranda Frost (Rosamund Pike) to check on Bond when she is working for the bad guys. Not one to learn from these mistakes she is the one who hires Vespa (Eva Green) to look after Bond despite Vespa being blackmailed in Casino Royale (2006, Martin Campbell). In Quantum of Solace it is her personal body guard that is found to be a member of the secret criminal organisation, Quantum. M's peers and allies are involved with Quantum and at times she mistrusts those who are her true allies. Whilst I remember the odd run in between Bernard Lee's and Robert Brown's M and Bond, the old Ms never called it wrong. Maybe those were different times and now one is allowed to make a mistake, or three. Like we have a Bond for our times perhaps we also have an M for our times to go with him.

The world of Bond is more ordinary than ever before. The villains blend in to their surroundings, they are more like eccentric CEOs and entrepreneurs than Assassins, and utopian dreamers. They are the villains of the cinema of Bush era politics. They are simple blackmailers and bomb makers rather than entertaining side stories. Perhaps this is because the Bond films have always been a slightly late to market mirror on the world. This is why the last two Bond films closely resemble those of Timothy Dalton played out at the end of the economic boom and the start of recession. The '80s ethos, music and fashion and politics of that time of Dalton's Bond very much mirrors the world today. Like Dalton, Craig's Bond is simple, pared down and blunt. Unlike Dalton, Craig's version of Bond is on drink, drugs; a step away from rehab and breakdown, more so than in Licence to Kill (1989, John Glen). I suppose this must be par for the course for secret agents these days, but then that's Bond, he is always the man of our times, it's what keeps him going and us interested in his stories.

Quantum is also the first Bond that is officially a sequel to the previous Bond, as usual James Bond is late to market. Sadly it seemed that few people were prepared to pair up Casino Royale with Quantum so we could watch it as the single four hour bond film that it really is. In the end we ended up with one slightly too long Bond and one slightly too short Bond. There is also something enjoyably Kitanoesque about Craig's Bond. The way he intentionally, bluntly and silently does the ridiculous with every intent to die and take everyone with him. However, unlike Kitano who always dies in a pool of blood, a hail of bullets, explosions or whatever else, Bond being Bond walks away.

Whilst Quantum is nothing new it has some great touches in the way Bond attempts to expose the bad guys. In particular the scene when he intercepts their communications at the opera causing them all to expose themselves as victims of his camera phone. This is a great Bond moment, a huge set piece coupled with a great bit of product placement. Like wise Bond getting smashed on the plane, drink after drink. No terrorists, no bad guys, no jumping out at 40,000 feet, this is our James Bond.

My favourite thing about Quantum is that whilst the story concludes all to nicely where it started at the beginning of Casino Royal, you still feel that the bigger picture is left unresolved and just like the classic Cold War Bonds the enemy is ever present. However, this time that enemy is the next big shot CEO bidding for government contracts, he is advisor to the PM, an American Diplomat for peace, a leading political figure in a friendly government. The enemy is there but so far he has yet to play his full hand, something S.P.E.C.T.R.E. was not the greatest at. My final feeling is that the fate of M is our fate as a viewer. When will there be a consequence for her actions and what will this mean?

The Jason Bourne Travel Log

Film: The Bourne Ultimatum (Paul Greengrass 2007)
Watched: 12th July 2008
Where: At home on TV

I'm still not sure if I'm a fan of the Bourne Trilogy, maybe it's because I'm an old fashioned 007 fan or maybe it's just cause these films are not as exciting and action packed as people would have you believe. It might also be because the whole trilogy shows what great city breaks I could be having rather than being sat at home in front of the TV... Oh well. Like the other two films in the trilogy the plot involves our lead Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) trying to find out who he really is, what he's been doing, and what exactly his job is supposed to be. It sounds like a typical day in the life really, thank goodness he's a secret agent and not some kind of 'clerk'. In Ultimatum we find out many of the answers to these questions. He finds out who he was and that his name's David Webb, nowhere near as cool sounding and impressive as Jason Bourne. He finds out that he signed up for the job of killing lots of people, that he chose to have his original identity wiped away despite being warned and that his life before was probably not quite as exciting as it is now. Just a little bit of Randal from Clerks sums up this film nicely,

"You sound like an asshole! Jesus, nobody twisted your arm to be here. You're here of your own volition. You like to think the weight of the world rests on your shoulder. Like this place would fall apart if Dante wasn't here... You know, that guy Jay's got it right, man. He has no delusions about what he does."

I think the trilogy would have been much more interesting if there was someone that gave it to him in plain English.

Anyway, we don't really watch the films for the plot so it was a shame that the story, location and action didn't seem to excite me as much as I'd hoped. The editing seemed to be too fast and jumpy (perhaps I'm getting old) so it never felt like he was actually in a real fight or a real car chase. I'm not sure why I didn't get more thrills from the set pieces, maybe they were just too clean and too well executed.

Anyway, here is the Jason Bourne travel map for those city break enthusiasts.

We have the fourth installment of the Bourne movies to look forward to in 2010, how well David Webb comes to terms with his place in the world will be interesting to see. I hope the Quickstop are hiring.